ng dispatched with their usual
cheerfulness, they retired to their seat by the window. To-day there was
no frost upon the glass; and the sky--all that could be seen of it--was
clear as crystal. It was a curiously simple prospect which this window
presented. Underneath them, over the ground-floor of the house, had been
constructed--for what reason it would not be easy to say--a tiled roof,
which projected in such a manner as completely to hide the narrow street
from their view. In front stretched the long low roof of a building,
which seemed to be used as a warehouse; and on both sides they were
hemmed in by the blank projecting walls and the tall chimneys of larger
houses--so that certain masses of brickwork, a long roof, and a fragment
of the open sky, was all that the eye could possibly command. This
complete isolation suited the lovers very well; for, besides that it
effectually concealed them from the discovery of their pursuers, it
permitted them to stand at the window, and talk and caress, without the
restraint occasioned by envious spectators. When they first occupied the
apartment, if they heard an unusual noise out of doors, they naturally
ran to the window to look down into the street; and it was not till
after many fruitless experiments that they learned to sit quiet on such
occasions. It was quite an event if a cat was seen stealthily making its
way over the long sloping roof in front of them. In the summer, when the
sparrows built their nests in the tall chimneys on either side, and were
perpetually flying to and fro, twittering, caressing, quarrelling--this
was quite a society. When a chimney-sweeper once thrust out his black
face from one of these chimneys, and shouted aloud to testify the
accomplishment of his ascent, it was an event that brought a shriek of
surprise from Clara.

Thus passed the days, and the pair were happy as kings, though they were
living very like beggars. Very singular was their power of abstraction
from the future, their entire satisfaction with the present. Clara, it
is true, cast some anxious thoughts after the wood; but Henry brought in
every morning the necessary supply: there was no symptoms of failure.
She thought indeed, of late, that the grain of the wood seemed altered;
but it burned as well as ever.

"Where," said Clara, one morning, "where is our faithful Christina? I
have not seen her for many a day. You rise in the morning before I can
get up--you take in the bread an